After 22 years together, Marilyn and Philip Logan tied the knot in Cyprus in 2002

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The family of tram crash victim Philip Logan have vowed to remember him as a man who "loved everyone" in life.

Great-grandfather Mr Logan was one of the seven passengers who were killed in last Wednesday's tram crash and one of five from New Addington.

Speaking for the first time since his tragic death, his wife Marilyn said it feels like "sheer torture" that she will have to sit and wait for answers over what caused the derailment but also fondly remembered their "fabulous marriage".

The family plan to have a fitting funeral for Mr Logan, even fulfilling his wish of getting him cremated and putting his ashes in a Bacardi rum bottle – his favourite spirit which he mixed with coke.

Philip and Marilyn with their daughter Lisa on her wedding day in 2003

Mrs Logan, who met her husband 36 years ago, told the Advertiser: "I'm just empty and it's left a void. He wasn't very big or tall but he was a larger-than-life person.

"No one has a bad word to say about Phil. He doted on his children and grandchildren.

"He loved all and everyone. He loved his house, his garden, his holidays, [he was] just a proper family-orientated man.

"He was just going to work and he was wiped out. He left here at 5.45am and by about 6.20am he was gone."

Tragically, 52-year-old Mr Logan, who ran a building company with his business partner, had considered whether he should go to work last Wednesday morning because of the torrential rain.

It was that decision to do so that has changed the family's lives forever.

Marilyn marrying her 'soulmate' Philip in 2002

Mrs Logan, 62, told the Advertiser at the family home in Headley Drive: "He wasn't going to go to work, because it was absolutely tipping down with rain. He moaned a bit about it while he was getting ready for work.

"Directly before he left the door he said 'there's not a lot of point me going to work because I'm going to get all the way there only to have to come all the way back'. And off he went to work.

"His partner phoned me at about 7.30am and said 'is Phil alright?' because it had flashed up on his phone about the tram.

"We were trying to phone him all day and, of course, we heard nothing."

The family frantically began trying to locate him, going to both the town hall and New Addington victim support centres to report Phil missing and search lists of injured people.

"The policeman came over and said I've got good and bad news," Mrs Logan added.

"Phil is at St George's Hospital but he's injured. We immediately left and went to St George's.

"After about half an hour I asked the first policeman about my husband and he came back and said there is no Mr Logan here."

Philip is remembered as a friend as one of the 'nicest men you are every likely to meet'

Mrs Logan said she then asked another policeman if he was in the hospital, which was treating the most seriously injured, and she was told he was and he was having his injuries assessed.

"So we waited an hour and nothing," she added. "So I went and found yet another policeman so he went and looked and said 'Mr Logan isn't here'.

"I was almost losing it by then, all I wanted to do was know where my husband was. Was he in there unidentified, was he in the morgue, where was he?

"I was really, really angry by this point and on the verge of lashing out at someone."

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By Thursday evening, the family had come to the realisation that the dad-of four, grandfather-of-six and great-grandfather-of-three was not coming home.

However, he was treated as a missing person until he was formally identified by the police on Saturday – with the family only finding out from watching news reports.

Mrs Logan said: "I knew from Thursday onwards, but you don't have that proof. It felt absolutely horrendous to find out that way."

She added that the "compassionate and terrific" police officer who had been looking after them had been on his way to tell them when they found out and he was "really apologetic".

Now the family are preparing to start a lengthy process of grieving and reliving the incident as three investigations take place to find what caused the derailment.

Mr Logan's granddaughter and mum-of-three Danielle Whetter, who said he had been more like a dad to her than a grandad, said: "Although you know it's coming, you can never prepare yourself for how you are going to feel. And I've been through a number of emotions.

"Times when you're laughing, times when you cry.

"Times when you feel angry because you want to point the blame at someone but you can't until they have done their investigation.

"There's going to be a lot of ups and downs before there is any type of closure and it's left a big hole in my heart and I know it's the same with Nan.

"Death is a hard thing under normal circumstances for anyone to deal with, never mind something like this."

Philip with family members at his wedding to Marilyn in 2002

Mr Logan's daughter Tracy said: "I'm getting angry because every single day now my mum is going to have to sort this out and it could be as long as five years and I just think it's so unfair, thinking what if I had done this or what if I had done that."

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The family revisited the scene on Friday to lay flowers, expecting the worst news about their loved one, and to pay respects to the other six victims.

"We felt because the tram was there, part of him was still there," said Mrs Logan.

They are now planning his funeral with some quirky additions to make sure Mr Logan, who was known for his dry sense of humour, is given the send-off he wanted.

"He wanted a jazz band in front of his funeral and I always used to joke with him about you and your jazz band and that costs money and I said I'll just walk in front and sing," Mrs Logan said. "Then he would say, 'well then no bugger would come to my funeral would they'. That sums him up.

"He always said to me, don't you worry about all these funeral expenses. He said 'you cremate me and you put me in a Bacardi bottle'.

"And that's exactly what I'm going to do. I will have the bottle engraved with his name on it."

Miss Whetter, 26, added: "The house isn't the same. I keep thinking my grandad always loved a Bacardi and coke, everyone knew that he loved a Bacardi and coke.

"He always used to have roll ups and he'd never have a filter. And I could never work out how he could smoke this fag. So when I went to lay flowers the other day, I made him a roll up and I knew he would be cursing at me.

"That roll up is huge, much too fat, he would be screaming at me that it would not be fit to smoke. So I still stuck it there and thought he can have a big, fat roll up. He always had a roll up and a Barcadi and coke."

His children, who are Mrs Logan's biological children, Lee, 46, Tracy, 44, Lisa, 42, and Adele, 30, have brought their families to New Addington to support their mum.

Mrs Logan's grandson Daniel loved to receive £50 from his grandad and he stayed with her on Thursday night to comfort her.

She said: "He said 'I love them policemen'. And I said, 'oh do you, that's good'. And he said 'yeah, they are bringing my grandad home'.

"And I said, 'it might be that they really can't but oh, if you look in the sky the brightest star is grandad'. And his answer was, 'is he going to send me a £50 down?' He would always have them on Friday night."

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Miss Whetter added: "He is coming home and he will be in a Bacardi bottle."

Mrs Logan, who married Phil after 22 years together in 2002, said: "I will miss him being with me. A shoulder to cry onto if I needed anything, or wanted anything, he was always, always there without a question. He was my soulmate.

"They say some really awful things about Addington but I wouldn't move out.

"When anything like this happens, everyone is there for you. It must have been horrific for those [emergency] services down there."

A close friend of Mr Logan's also paid tribute to him, saying he was "one of the nicest men you are ever likely to meet, a true diamond in the rough".

Stuart Ayres, who met the couple on holiday with his wife Vicky 15 years ago, said: "He is more than just my best friend or drinking pal, I considered the man a brother and it is an honour to say I knew the man."

The family have urged anyone who saw what happened or have not yet spoken to the authorities to do so.